


Broken Wings and Torn Feathers

by Showndra_Ridge



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Depression, Heavy Angst, Mental Instability, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Clone Characters, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-09-27 09:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10002044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Showndra_Ridge/pseuds/Showndra_Ridge
Summary: Broken Wings were meant to fly.  Broken Wings were meant to find their wings and one day soar away from it all, the war, everything.And then they can’t, because in an instant it all changes.  In an instant, all of those hopes, dreams, joys, and fears are destroyed on a battle field.Save for one, the last Broken Wing, and he may have the most tattered and torn wings of any of any of them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Tobias (ARC-239) is an OC clone that was created because I have an odd addition to creating OCs. He is currently being used as a role play character.
> 
> WARNINGS: This fic contains the following themes: PTSD, depression, suicidal thoughts/tendencies, survivors guilt, a general feeling of no self worth/low self worth, risky behavior brought about by all of the above that could easily result in his death--  
> either expressed by the character as saying he feels that way, his thoughts, or be him actually doing something. 
> 
> This clone is not a happy clone. He does however deserve all the hugs when he starts to heal and gets passed his current mental state.

“ARC-239.”

The female voice cut into his dreams, slowly drawing him toward waking.

“CT-239?” The voice called again.

Opening his eyes he found himself face to face with a Kaminoan he didn’t know, not that he knew many Kaminoan’s if any. 

“Good.” She turned to a clone medic next to her and had him write down something before walking away from the bed leaving him alone.

The medic spared him a glance before he too walked away to follow her, leaving him alone on the bed.

He found himself unable to move, and simply lay on the bed, waiting, and listening to the sound of machines and other, he assumed brothers, breathing. 

It was the stark white of the room that got to him, sterile in a way their ships never were.

Time passed. 

Slowly he began to get feeling back in his hands, arms, feet. Good then, everything was still attached and not damaged in some way.

The sounds in the room didn’t change.

Quiet, soft breathing, nothing like the last thing he remembered.

He closed his eyes and felt as his heart rate raised slightly. He’d been with his men, on that planet, with their General. She had screamed something was coming… Then… Then it was there. The ship appeared, and in a minute it was all over, a weapon they’d never seen was fired at the surface. The General and Commander Drake were the first to be hit, the first voices to fade from the open comm channel he shared with all of his squad, his batch, his brothers. Then it was Peag, then Caw, one by one his brothers fell silent as the wave of energy produced by the weapon hit the bunkers they were in. Raven had been the last he’d heard. Raven screaming for his men to get to the back of the bunker, get underground if they could. Raven screaming for them to run. Raven screaming for him to run, then Raven too had been cut off. He’d looked forward, watching the wave wash over the land toward him, destroying everything he’d cherished in life and turned away from it, screaming at his own men to close the blast doors, screaming at them to get under cover. At the last moment he’d looked back to the outside, watching as the doors in front of the window he was next to slowly closed, and he knew they wouldn’t make it in time. He’d thrown himself on top of the shiny that was next to him to try and protect the trooper somehow…

And that was it.

He woke up from that nightmare to find himself here, in another completely different nightmare.

A clone medic gently poked his shoulder, bringing him to the here and now.

“Can you move finally?” The medic spoke. For a clone his tone was bored, jaded almost, as if he’d done this 100s of times.

With effort ARC-239 found yes, he could move, and the medic helped pull him up to a sitting position.

“You’re being reassigned, the ship to get you should be here in three days.” The medic told him reading off of data pad.

“Reassigned?” The ARC finally asked, his voice was weak, cracked almost as if it had been unused for too long.

“Yep.” The medic glanced down again.

“And my men, my Commander, the General?” He whispered the question out, afraid of the answer.

The medic looked a bit annoyed, “The 109th was destroyed, you and the men you were with were the only survivors. They’ve already been reassigned before you ask, you’re the last due to being in bacta for about 4 weeks.”

The rest of what the medic said faded into the background and became white noise. Without realizing it he had been moved, his belongings, his armor and the few possessions he had were in the room with him now. A few other men were there as well, waiting deployment, but they choose to ignore him. Whether it be because of something on his face, or an aura he was extending he didn’t know, and didn’t care.

His hands ghosted over his belongings in the trunk before he pulled out a small tablet that contained a few recordings he had of his brothers. Carefully avoiding even looking at his armor he closed the box again and escaped to the safety of his bed, the device cradled in his hand.

Burying himself under his covers he looked at it, hesitating before opening a list of files and hitting play.


	2. But Just Imagine if We Could Fly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The entire story behind Broken Wing came from Raven’s speech, the one seen below. Tobias, the Jedi general, everything was born from the image of a clone giving this speech, that ends with ‘But just imagine if we could fly.’

“Think for a minute, if all of this went away, if you could breathe, if you could think. What if for a minute, you were your own person.

“What if you lived for yourself?

“What if instead of getting up every day, going into a fight you didn’t know if you’d survive, what if just for a moment, for a day you were able to live for yourself, to breathe for yourself, to bleed for yourself.

“What would you do if you could die for yourself?

“For your brothers instead of this great institute of the Republic? Instead of being a simple part of a larger thing that owned you, that decided where you went, where you lived… where you would die?

“But just imagine if you could fly?”

Raven stopped his speech, his normal pondering as the gun ship they were on took a hit.

“You mean if we could all fly, brother?” Caw asked, smiling a bit under his helmet. 

“You need wings to fly, you know that, right?” Some shiny commented. It was his first mission with Broken Wing, his armor not even marked yet, so he had no idea this conversation happened before every battle, between every mission Broken Wing went into. Raven had come to think of it as their good luck speech, their Jedi general had even secretly began to look forward to the speech her men would hear. If nothing else, Raven reminding them that the war would end and they would be free of the army one day, seemed to amp up the men and get them ready for the upcoming battle.

“Who needs wings when we can make them ourselves?” Raven countered, the smile clear in his voice even if his face was hidden under his helmet. 

“Still don’t get why you never wanted to be a pilot.” Peag softly commented, his own gaze appeared to be on the doors instead of the ARC.

“And leave you guys all alone?” He countered with a shrug.

“You’d get to fly then.” Peag countered.

“But not in the way I want. Not with the wings I want.” Raven told him, his eyes looking forward but his mind on a time in the future where he’d make his own wings, and with his brothers fly away.


	3. Becoming ARCs

“We should be ARCs.” Raven announced as he flung himself onto his brother’s bed.

CT-239 barely looked up from his date pad. “ARCs?” 

“Yes, Tobias, ARCs.” Raven sighed dramatically as if having to explain was too much for him.

“ARCs?” Tobias deadpanned again, finally putting down the pad to stair directly at his brother.

“For a clone who’s as smart as you I’m surprised your having issues understand this. ARCs.” Raven told him, staring at him.

Caw was heard in the background, behind the camera snickering a bit.

“Why ARCs?” He finally asked.

“Why not ARCs?” Peag finally added to the conversation. He was laying on his back reading something as well but hadn’t looked away from it. “It will be something new for you to learn Toby.” He added after a minute.

With a resigned sigh Tobias finally agreed.

“Good.” Raven promptly stood on his bunk, much to the annoyance of his brother, “Then let’s make it a game, first two of us to make ARCs get to pick our armor patterns.”

“Seriously?” Tobias couldn’t help but be amazed by his brother.

“Yep.” Raven told him, his smug expression saying it wasn’t open for debate.

“Worried you won’t win Toby?” Peag asked.

“Of course not.” He muttered, glaring up at the still standing Raven. With a huff he tackled his brother knocking them both off the bed and onto the floor. A startled sound was heard from Raven, while the only response Tobias had was to settle back onto this bed.


End file.
